Bath creative and tech firms are being invited to hear some of the biggest names in the world of gaming and entertainment at a major event next week that will put the West of England on the global map for the fast-growing virtual reality industry.
Leading lights from Sony and Bossa Studios have joined the line-up of speakers for Tuesday’s SouthWest VR Conference, where a string of new innovations is set to be unveiled. 
Dave Ranyard, head of Sony Computer Entertainment, London, and Henrique Olifiers, the Brazilian games designer and co-founder of Bossa Studios, will join Atlantic Productions’ Alchemy VR, Unity 3D, nDreams and Innerspace in the speaker line-up.
Tickets for the event, which is set to throw a spotlight on the world of virtual reality in film, games, TV and animation, are close to selling out.
Official guests at the conference include Channel 4, Pinewood, Bristol animation studio Aardman, The Imaginarium and Yogscast, the Bristol firm behind the world’s largest gaming YouTube channel. Meanwhile, the event will be the launchpad for several new VR products with the potential to shake up the gaming industry, as well as many non-gaming spheres.
Dave Ranyard is studio director at Sony Computer Entertainment, London, and has worked on some of Sony's VR projects such as The Deep and VR Luge for the firm’s closely guarded Project Morpheus virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD), pictured above (photo: Martin Blunden).
He said: “I’m really looking forward to SouthWest VR – I think it’s going to be great to see different perspectives of people working in VR – and it really feels like a fantastic, grass roots event.”
Henrique Olifiers is gamer-in-chief of award-winning Bossa Studios, whose first game Monstermind was launched at the Eurogamer Expo 2011 and has since been nominated for two BAFTAs. Other speakers include Duncan Burbidge, executive producer of pre-visualisation studio The Third Floor Inc, and Mark Washbrook and Paul Colls of game development studio Fierce Kaiju.
SouthWest VR, organised by award-winning studio Opposable Games, will be held at the At-Bristol Science Centre on Bristol’s Harbourside.
It will be hosted by renowned games journalist Will Freeman and is supported by Invest Bristol & Bath, Creative Skillset, the Digital Cultures Research Centre, Webstart Bristol, the Centre for Digital Entertainment, the BMT Group and Unity 3D.
Opposable Games managing director Ben Trewhella said: “Right now we're at the beginning of a hugely exciting time in technology – virtual reality and augmented reality games, experiences and applications are about to explode like the web, social and mobile before them. It's incredibly exciting that so many producers, developers and engineers are choosing to come together in Bristol at the SouthWest VR conference.”
Invest Bristol & Bath creative and digital media specialist David Maher Roberts added: “The Bristol and Bath region is home to a real hotbed of innovation, encompassing experimental games and interactive developers, established TV, film and animation producers, a thriving developer scene with some of the UK's brightest mobile app developers, and a background of engineering and entrepreneurism in chip and product design.
“With this combination of skill sets, the region is well placed to capitalise on the huge opportunities advancements in virtual reality will bring, not just for gaming and entertainment, but across a vast array of applications including aerospace and advanced engineering, and architecture, to name just a few.”
SouthWest VR will be fundraising for UK charity GamesAid, which will be running a GamesAid Tenner collection. Attendees are asked to bring £10 with them to donate to GamesAid.
For more information, tickets and links to social media, visit www.southwestvr.com
